An old Sicilian line

By Malcolm Pein

12:01AM GMT 18 Nov 2004

Garry Kasparov was held to a draw by Alexey Korotylev in the second round of the 57th Russian Championship Super Final being held at the Hotel Rossija in Moscow. The twenty seven year old who trains Alexandra Kosteniuk played very solidly with white and a draw was agreed on move twenty six. Kasparov sits out the third round because of the odd number of players; defending champion Peter Svidler re-enters the fray in round three.

There was only one decisive game as Alexey Dreev outplayed Alexander Morozevich with an old line in the Sicilian that was popular before the latter was born. After an early attack from Morozevich failed, Dreev's two bishops, two rooks and queen bore down on the white king. Defending pieces were gradually eliminated and Dreev won in some style, see below.

Dreev comes up with a very old line, 6…Bd7. In the 1960s and 1970s White usually played 7.Qd2 and after 7…Nxd4 8.Qxd4 Qa5 9.Bd2 White was a bit better however Black also liked to play 7…Rc8 and this move still endures. I recently wrote about Leonid Stein and it is interesting to note that he also played this line against the Ukrainian GM Oleg Romanishin in the USSR Championship semi final at Odessa thirty two years ago (see below). Romanishin was one of the most creative GMs of his generation and is still a very strong player. He eliminated Vasily Ivanchuk in this year's Ukrainian championship. Romanishin did not make Morozevich's error of early queenside castling and the result was a fascinating game in which Stein gave up his queen (again) see below. After 14…a5! Dreev is clearly better and the dark squared diagonal pressure is decisive; 27.Rhd1 Rxc3! Or 31.axb3 a3! Or 33.b3 Rcxa4 34.Rxa4 Qa1+ and mates.